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Statins Show Promise for Treating Progressive MS

Research shows that popular cholesterol-lowering drugs can protect the brain from atrophy, slowing disability in progressive MS.

A
new study published in The Lancet reveals that a common cholesterol
drug may help to slow disability in people with progressive forms of multiple
sclerosis (MS).

A
research team led by Dr. Jeremy Chataway, a neurologist at the National Hospital
for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, found that high, daily doses of
simvastatin, (sold under the brand name Zocor), reduced brain atrophy in people
with progressive MS.

Brain
volume has been shown in earlier studies to be directly linked to disability.

What
is encouraging to note, said Dr. Timothy Coetzee, Chief Advocacy, Services and
Research Officer at the National MS Society in an interview with Healthline,
“is that cholesterol lowering therapies may hold promise for treating people
with secondary progressive MS, for whom there are currently few treatment
options.”

The
Study Design

Chataway's
team divided 140 people ages 18 to 65 with secondary-progressive MS into two
groups. One group received simvastatin for two years while the other group took
a placebo. The study was double-blinded, meaning that neither the researchers
nor the participants knew who was on simvastatin and who was taking placebo.

The
participants had a yearly MRI scan to record the volume of their brains, as
well as other tests including the EDSS, which is used to measure disability and
progression in MS.

At
the end of two years, researchers found that the group taking simvastatin
showed 43 percent less brain atrophy than the placebo group. And the simvastatin
group experienced no more adverse events than the placebo group, suggesting
that the drug was well tolerated.

Simvastatin:
History and Safety

According
to the National Library of Medicine, simvastatin
was first approved for use in the U.S. in 1991. Like all statin drugs,
simvastatin lowers LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, and in turn decreases the risk of
heart attack and stroke.

Two
decades after its approval, simvastatin is still widely used to treat high
cholesterol with “more than 40 million prescriptions being filled yearly.”

Simvastatin
is considered to be safe with minimal side effects, which, according to MedlinePlus, can include constipation, nausea,
headache, memory loss, and forgetfulness. Because there is also a slight risk
of liver damage, people taking the drug should be monitored regularly.

Why
statins are effective for progressive MS but not relapsing MS remains a mystery
that only further research can solve. The more scientists learn about MS,
the more they think there may be two different disease processes at work in
relapsing and progressive forms of the disease, one that involves the body's
inflammatory immune response and another that does not.

Chataway
cautions that this was a small, phase 2 study, so he doesn't recommend that
people with progressive MS start to take simvastatin just yet. With these
promising results, however, the next step will be to conduct a phase 3 study
with 800 or more volunteers who have progressive MS. According to Chataway,
large-scale studies will decide for certain how effective statins might be in
treating this long neglected form of the disease.

“It’s
also proof of concept that you can repurpose a therapy successful in treating
one disorder and target it for the successful treatment of something totally
different,” Coetzee said.

And
because it’s already on the market as a generic cholesterol treatment, if
simvastatin is approved for progressive MS, it is sure to be affordable. A
30-day supply sells at Costco stores for less than $6.00.

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